[2] On 24 June 2022, Bulgaria's parliament approved lifting the country's veto on opening EU accession talks with North Macedonia.

On 16 July 2022, the Assembly of North Macedonia also approved the revised French proposal, allowing accession negotiations to begin.

[4] As of October 2024[update], Albania aims to be ready for accession by 2030, a timeline acknowledged by Prime Minister Edi Rama as "very ambitious.

"[5] It is one of nine current EU candidate countries, together with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine.

Officially recognised by the EU as a "potential candidate country" in 2000, Albania started negotiations on a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) in 2003.

This was successfully agreed and signed on 12 June 2006, thus completing the first major step toward Albania's full membership in the EU.

Albania is given certain pre-conditions for starting the accession negotiations, such as passing reforms in the justice system, a new electoral law, opening trials for corrupt judges and respect for the human rights of its Greek minority.

[14] However, in June the EU General Affairs Council decided to postpone their decision on opening negotiations to October, due to objections from a number of countries including the Netherlands and France.

[73] Until 2020, Albania had been receiving €1.2bn of developmental aid from the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance, a funding mechanism for EU candidate countries.

The €2 billion of non-repayable support will be financed through additional resources from the Mid-Term revision of the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF).